4 Buildings Touted For Landmark Status

May 08, 1986|By Stanley Ziemba, Urban affairs writer.

Chicago`s top planning official recommended Wednesday that official city landmark status be conferred individually on four historic buildings surrounding the Michigan Avenue Bridge over the Chicago River.

In a series of reports to the Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, Elizabeth Hollander, city planning commissioner, said that the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, the Stone Container Building and the 333 N. Michigan Avenue Building each are ``outstanding examples of urban design`` and should be preserved.

She also recommended that landmark status be granted to the bridge and to Pioneer Court south of Tribune Tower.

Efforts to reach representatives of the owners of the buildings Wednesday were unsuccessful. But owners of two of the buildings--the 333 N. Michigan and Stone Container Buildings--have said they would fight any form of landmark status.

Owners of the Wrigley and Tribune buildings have said they would not oppose individual status.

Hollander`s proposal to designate the landmarks individually follows a failed attempt by her and the commission last year to group the structures into one city landmark district.

That concept was scrapped when owners of three of the four buildings indicated they would oppose it. At the time, only representatives of the Tribune Co., owners of the Chicago Tribune, said they would not fight inclusion in a landmark district.

The other three building owners objected to being included in one district, saying it would reduce property values, hinder renovation efforts and impede redevelopment of the surrounding area.

Commission members said they hoped that the individual designation would eliminate the objections, because some building alterations could be made.

The next step in the process will come June 4, when the commission is expected to endorse Hollander`s latest recommendations. A public hearing then would be held, and the commission would take a final vote on whether to nominate the proposal to the Chicago City Council for final action.

Consent of building owners is not requred under the city`s landmarks ordinance.

In her report to the commission, Hollander said the 28-story Wrigley Building at 400 N. Michigan Ave., built between 1921 and 1924, deserves landmak status, in part, because it is ``a symbol of visually handsome corporate architecture.``

The 66-year-old, 35-story Tribune Building, 435 N. Michigan Ave., is

``internationally known`` and should be preserved as the ``gateway to the North Michigan Avenue shopping promenade,`` she noted.

But Hollander suggested that the designation of the Tribune Building be limited to the Tower and the section facing Michigan Avenue, so that Tribune Co. could make any modifications needed to the portion of the building to the east of and behind the Tower.

Along with the Tribune and Wrigley buildings, preservation of the 22-story Stone Container Building, 360 N. Michigan Ave. and the 26-story 333 N. Michigan Building are needed because the group forms ``a unique quartet of structures which have been identified by historians as one of the great urban spaces in the world.``